XCOM PA (Pony Addition)
by MrTweady
Summary: What would happen if the aliens of X-Com invaded the land of Equestria. Click this story to find out.


**Chapter 1 - The Day the Sky Fell.**

Rain

That is what the rest of my life was going to consist of. Rain. Every day I would wake up and go ruin some poor pony's afternoon with my special talent. Any pegasus worth their wings could do my job. But I had to do the dirty work, because I was really good at it. I could create a rain cloud in an hour that would take a group pegasi all afternoon.

I should be good at what I do, after all I have the storm cloud cutie mark to prove it. To most of the citizens of Ponyville I was just that yellow pegasus who, when he wasn't hurling sarcasm at them or brushing his black mane out of his square rimmed glasses. Who would show up unannounced and ruin their plans to work in the garden that day. To everypony else, I went by Quick Sleet.

It should go without saying that everypony outside of the local farmers didn't enjoy when my services were needed in their area, I couldn't exactly blame them though. While most would simply grumble under their breath and go inside to find something to pass the time, I had my fair share of aggressive patrons. One time I had a particularly uptight unicorn scream at me from the balcony of her dress shop to stop what I was doing because she needed the sunlight to make her latest creation "shine". Her voice reached an almost ear splittingly high pitch as she attempted to make her point. When I offered her suggestions on where to cram said creation I spent a majority of the day bandaging cuts from a very aggressive cat that she hurled at me with some unicorn magic fueled by pure rage.

Despite all the depressing weather, disappointed town's folk and flying cats. I still loved my job, who wouldn't. Without my services' nothing grows, the land is left either dead or dying. Without the rain we don't have anything to eat. Without rain and the life it brings, we lose everything. But even the knowledge that my job brings life doesn't come close to my favorite part, storms.

I can still remember the first storm I ever witnessed. I was just a foal, I didn't even have my cutie mark yet. I sat by the window and watched as the black clouds seemed to churn and move through the sky. The wind making the rain fall almost sideways, threatening to rip homes right off of their foundations. The first strikes of lightning and the crack of thunder made me dive for cover under a table. When I reemerged from my hiding spot I noticed that the lightning had completely destroyed a massive oak tree, leaving nothing but a twisted mess where is once stood. It was like nothing I had ever seen. That storm was somehow beautiful and terrifying at the same time, and I loved it.

The following morning I tried to create a little storm of my own while everypony else was busy cleaning up. I forced some clouds together in a desperate attempt to recreate what I had seen the night before using only what I could remember. When I had finished what I was certain would be my masterpiece, I struck it with my front legs trying to create some rain. What I got was lightning, which ended up blowing a hole in the roof of some poor ponies home. I cowered on that cloud hoping that no one had seen that I was the one responsible, until my father showed up. He wasn't exactly proud of my accomplishment. I spent the rest of the day in my room, feeling sick about what happened. When my parents finally entered I braced myself to receive the punishment of a lifetime, instead I was given a sign-up sheet for weather camp, followed by a punishment that in hindsight wasn't severe enough for major property damage.

But it was a special day for me, nowhere in Ponyville needed a drop of rain. Which allowed me to take a much needed break. I don't know what it was but that town at that time of year, but it seemed to need more rain than actually existed. I would bet every Bit I had that my wings would have fallen off if I would have made so much as a light drizzle.

Settling into my cloud I took in a deep breath, trying to relax all of my muscles. I had managed to snag a prime napping spot before Rainbow Dash could claim it. A cool breeze was perfectly offsetting the summer sun. The natural melody of the forest slowly bringing me closer and closer to a deep sleep. It was going to be a very good day.

My ears perked up, an unknown sound bombards them and snaps me back into reality. It sounded almost like a large fire, mixed with a high pitched scream. Sliding my glasses onto my nose, watching the world come into focus I tried to trace the source of this strange noise. My eyes dart from place to place, to Ponyville on the horizon to the forest directly beneath me and everywhere in between, desperately looking for whatever had woken me. When I finally found my prize I could not believe what I was seeing, the source of my unwelcome alarm clock was what looked like a miniature sun, and it was growing in both size and volume. Squinting, I tried to make sense of what I was seeing. I tried rubbing my glasses against a cloud to clean them off, but all that seemed to do was bring my mysterious light into slightly better focus.

As the screaming sun continued to grow in size I can't help but become mesmerized, it was like nothing I had ever seen before. As I sat staring at the sky, I failed to notice how large the object had become, until it went screaming over my head. I spring up from my cloud, the air hot where it had passed by and watched as the ball of screaming fire slams into Ponyville.

"Oh shit!"

My thoughts are moving faster than my wings as I race towards Ponyville.

"_What the hell was that? Is everypony ok? I hope it doesn't crash into my house." _

These thoughts bounced around my head during my short flight, but when I arrived; my questions are not answered but only replaced with new ones.

Landing on the roof of somepony's home, I tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

The object had landed right in the middle of Ponyville square, and buried itself in the ground. It looked even weirder now that it had landed. A leg on each of its four corners had dug into the ground and secured it in place. The material it was composed of didn't look like anything I and ever seen before. It had a black tinge that made it look almost unnatural; it was dotted with lines of green that gave off a slight glow. If I had not seen it engulfed in flames, I would have sworn it would feel like ice. It was no larger than your average stallion and topped with a small cylinder which spun slowly around. The entire object gave off an unsettling hum, which was the only noise that broke the silence that fell on the crowd of ponies that had gathered in a large circle it.

Everypony just stood there staring; no one was willing to go forward, until a brave colt stepped into the interior of the circle formed by the ever-growing crowd. His steps were heavy as he inched closer and closer to the object. The look on his face made it clear that he regretted his decision to step forward, but he continued to move forward regardless. When he came within a foot of the object, he took in a long breath, then stretched out a hoof to touch the rotating cylinder. He came within inches of it before it slammed down with a sickening hiss. Plates on the sides of the device opened to reveal small holes that glowed violently with the same green light.

Another hiss rang out as a green substance exploded from the holes. Everything it touched was dragged towards the source. Screams rang out as the colt that stepped forward fought to free himself, but eventually was completely covered and fell silent, leaving only a green cast where he had once been. Others tried to fight the pull, but eventually befell the same fate; all who were grabbed were dragged to the object and replaced by a green shell.

My legs and wings were frozen in place. I kept telling them to move, to flee, anything! But they simply refused to move. The screams of fleeing ponies echoed through the air. From my vantage point I could see a filly kneeling over one of the green shells, her hooves in her hands. Tears streaming from her eyes, her cries clearly heard through all the screams. It was impossible to know if she was crying over the correct shell.

Something about the sight of the mourning filly snapped my wings out of their trance, I only noticed when I felt my feet leave the roof of the building. I was airborne! My mind snapped into action.

"_I need to get the hell out of here."_

Landing in an open field, the screams and chaos of Ponyville far behind me. I take a deep breath in and out, trying to collect myself. I can feel my heart pounding from a cocktail of residual fear and exhaustion.

"Ok, I can figure this out," I start mumbling to myself. "A weird object falls out of the sky and crashes into Ponyville," I begin to pace back and forth. "This object starts kidnapping ponies and replacing them with some weird green goop," my voice rises in tempo and pitch. "And now I'm in the middle of a field having a fucking panic attack because something fell out of the sky and started kidnapping ponies!"

My flank slumps down onto the grass, I let my neck go limp and starred at my hooves. For the first time in my life, my mind was blank, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I was always that guy who had all the ideas. While many were extremely stupid, I would still come up with something. But my mind was like the field I was sitting in, devoid of anything remotely useful.

Looking up I could see the city of Canterlot in the distance. The majestic white colored city that stuck out of a mountain side and seemed to levitate in the air. Three separate waterfalls fell like long drapes from the city and feed the rivers bellow. Princess Celestia's castle topped the city like a hat and gave her a perfect view of the entire city and the valley below.

"_I wonder what Princess Celestia is up to" _

My mind lurched into a gear I was familiar with.

"That's it!" I screamed "I'll go to Princess Celestia and ask her what to do, she must have some idea. I mean she's been alive for so long, you don't live for over a thousand years and not gain at least some intelligence. Why the hell didn't I think of this before, it's so obvious!"

Invigorated by my own brilliance, I flapped my wings hard and set off for Canterlot.

Landing in Canterlot I was greeted by something I did not expect, silence. I had been to Canterlot a couple of times and its streets were always filled to bursting with ponies of all kinds. I was hoping for the regular hustle and bustle of Equestria's capitol, but I was greeted with silence.

Looking around for any signs of life I noticed a large chunk had been ripped off of the roof of what looked like a café. Peering around the corner to see if I could find what did so much damage, I was horrified with what I found. Lodged into the paved street of Canterlot was an object that matched perfectly the object that had landed in Ponyville, several green shells already surrounded it.

Fear began to well up in my stomach, I sprinted back around the corner and slammed my back up against a wall. My breathing had become very heavy and rapid. Peering around the corner, I noticed that the object had lost the green glow that dotted parts of it, and it was devoid of the hum that echoed from its partner in Ponyville.

I stepped out from my hiding place and started to move towards the object, the fear in my gut intensified with every step. I stopped dead within a foot of the object, the memories of the colt that stepped forward flashed through my mind. I tried to ignore those horrible memories, but they persisted as I reached out my hoof.

When I finally pressed my hoof against the object, my prediction about its temperature back in Ponyville was correct. The object felt like ice, and I quickly pulled my hoof away.

"_Okay, when the green glow is gone, these objects are dead. Good to know."_

Looking up I can see Princess Celestia's castle, the balcony outstretched from the tallest tower providing me with the perfect entry point. I had a feeling that what I was about to do was illegal in many different ways, but I also felt that under the current circumstances the royal guards would forgive me this one time.

Landing on the balcony running I headed straight through the already opened doors into what looked like a bedroom. A large pillow and blanket was set up in front of a burning fireplace. The walls were painted a dark blue and a banner of a shining star was hung with a single nail.

"Princess Celestia." I called out to the empty room. "Are you in here? I need to talk to you."

The door exploded inwards as two stallions stormed into the bedroom. They were decorated with tan colored armor that covered every part of their body. On their right side a strange object was attached to the armor, it had a gray tint and was shaped like a large box welded to a long hollow barrel. On their left side another hollow tube was attached to the armor, it was mounted to a gear system that would allow it to swivel up and down. A symbol of a Y with a star in each gap of the arms with the phrase XCOM was embroidered on their chest piece.

"Get on the ground, NOW!" one of them screamed at me, a click echoed from the box attached to the tube on his right side.

"Ok, ok," I replied. "Let's not do something we will all regret. Now I'm sure if we just take a deep breath and talk this out, we can…"

"Shut up!" The other one yelled. "Now you are going to tell us who you are and what you're doing here or I will blow your fucking head off."

I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by "blow your head off," but I had a gut feeling that it wasn't good.

"Well, my name is Quick Sleet. I am the rain manager in Ponyville. And I was just looking for the bathroom so if you fine gentlemen could point me in the right direction, then I'll be on my way and…" The sarcasm was heavy in my voice, and in hindsight wasn't the best choice for my reply.

"Why you little shit." The guard's face had turned a blood red color. "I should but a bullet right in your sarcastic mouth right now!"

A loud voice boomed from the open doorway.

"Enough, all of you!"

All three of us turned to look at the doorway, a tall Alicorn stood there. She had a white coat contrasted with a flowing mane of many different colors. A cutie mark of a shining sun rested on her flank. A tiara of gold with a purple gem placed in its center rested on her head, a matching band was placed on her shoulders and draped down over her chest. She had an expression on her face which seemed like that of a mother who was about to discipline at her children, angry but also concerned.

"Princess Celestia, our deepest apologies." The guards slammed their heads to the floor, bowing to their leader.

"Do not worry, we are all on edge as of late." her voice was extremely soothing. She turned to look at me. "Now, why are you here?"

"Well, you see," I started to recant my experiences from earlier today. "I was napping when this object fell out of the sky and landed in Ponyville square. Some weird green stuff came out of it and started to drag ponies towards it, leaving nothing but a green shell. I managed to get away, and I came here to ask for your help in dealing with this whole situation."

"So Ponyville was hit as well." The princess took in and let out a deep breath. "Very well, come with me."

One of the guards raised his head.

"Princess, you aren't really going to take him with us are you? He is a rain manager, not a solider."

"Oh, and what would you do with him, leave him here, let him be captured by the invaders, let him be killed by the invaders? If we can find any survivors on route to HQ they will accompany us as well. Soldiers or otherwise. Is that clear."

"But… we just can't…" The guard let out a deep sigh. "Yes princess."

"Good, now we must be off, we need to get to HQ." The Princess turned to look at me. The warm motherly expression still on her face. "I know you have questions, and I will answer all of them in due time."

One part of me wanted to object, and demand the answers right now. But another side fought that notion because I didn't want to make the pony who was attempting to save my life angry. So I stayed silent, and followed the princess and her two guards out of the shattered door.

Our party made our way down a hallway and started to approach the main ballroom. One of the special guards lifted his hoof in front of the princess, forcing her to stop. He mumbled something before dashing ahead and pressing his back against a wall, he turned to peak around the corner to look into the ballroom, before motioning with his hoof for us to follow. We entered and I was horrified by what I saw.

The ballroom was littered with the bodies of royal guards. Some were lying upright against the walls, their blood painting the wall directly behind them, while others were simply spread around the floor. Their armor was riddled with holes, the edges of which were singed and blackened. The bodies of some other creature I couldn't name were also scattered throughout the room and impaled by the ceremonial spears carried by the royal guard. They were a light gray with a large head and large eyes. The outline of bones could be seen through their paper thin skin. They had long limbs attached to their shoulders that ended in what look like griffin or dragon claws, while two more limbs coming from their hips ended similar to the feet of a dragon, only they were much skinnier. These bodies too were surrounded by pools of blood, only it was an amber color, instead of red. The smell of burning and blood filled the room.

This sight was the last straw. I had managed to suppress my fear and sadness of the day's events. The original object, the screams of the townsfolk, even the filly crying over the shell. I had suppressed all of my emotions to that point. But when I saw those bodies, the senseless slaughter of so many good ponies over something I didn't even understand. Everything just erupted, and I broke down. All of my legs went limp and I fell on my side. My eyes erupted in tears, some fell and stained my glasses while others streamed down my muzzle and pooled on the floor. I just lied there and cried, I don't even know for how long.

I felt one of the guards grab my head and jerk it up to look at him.

"Listen, I know that this is horrifying, and if I had the choice, I would be doing what you are doing right now. But I don't have that choice, because those ponies down there. They are dead, and there is nothing we can do about that. But if we all sat down and cried, we would all be like them, dead. So you need to pull yourself together, because we need to live. To make sure they didn't die for nothing."

I took off my glasses and rubbed my eyes, removing the tears. I looked up and saw that everypony was staring at me. Their faces were like statues, devoid of any emotion. The guard's words seemed to clear the black clouds in my mind. I felt the strength return to my body. I placed my glasses back on my nose, and got back on my feet. I gave a fake smile to try and defuse the tension, and got nothing in return. The party simply turned away, and headed for the exit.

I ran to catch up to the guard who spoke to me.

"Thanks for what you said."

"You don't need to thank me, I couldn't just sit there and watch you make a fool of yourself." A slight smile spread across his face.

A smile blooms on my face "Well, look at that, you do feel emotions other than anger, isn't that a nice surprise."

The guard let out a snicker. "Can you have any other attitude besides sarcasm?"

"No, not really, it's my natural state of mind."

"Well your natural state of mind almost got you shot." He motioned to the tube on his right.

"I have been meaning to ask." I pointed to the tube attached to his side. "What is that tube thing anyway?"

"This right here is called a combat suit. It's a special kind of armor that has weapons attached to it that a pony couldn't normally use. This "tube" is called a rifle, which is basically a machine that fires lots of little projectiles at extremely high speed. That speed makes the projectiles very deadly."

"Where the hell did you get something like that?"

"It's a prototype, the only place to get these is at HQ. I will show you where they make them when we get there."

"Thanks." I ran a hoof through my mane. "So do you have a name or should I just call you angry guard."

"Call me Autumn Lance." He pointed to the other guard walking next to the princess. "And that's my brother, Spring Lance."

Our party continued past the ballroom and eventually out of the castle into a tunnel that cut directly through the mountain that supported the city. When we emerged we continued on for a few more hours until we reached Foal Mountain. One grueling climb latter, we reached our final destination. A large cave near the summit of the mountain, the walls seemed to swallow up the afternoon sunlight that was streaming. Water dripping from the ceiling was the only sound that resonated from its depths. I wasn't exactly thrilled.

"So this is the famous HQ I have heard so much about, I don't know about you, but this looks more like a cave?" I held my hoof to my chin, trying to look like I was in deep thought. "I can't be the only one who sees that right."

The princess let out a light chuckle.

"Looks can be very deceiving." A ball of light erupted from the tip of Celestia's horn. "We are close to our destination, it won't be too much longer."

We descended into the cave, the faint glow of a light spell cast by Celestia cutting through the endless darkness. The air was moist and heavy, devoid of any scents or life. The sound of hooves against the stone was amplified by the absolute emptiness of the cave. We walked until we reached the end of the tunnel. My heart sank.

"Great, we just walked all that way only to find a dead end. Which one of you has the map? I need it so I can start beating you with it."

The princess looked at me with her warm eyes.

"Don't panic, this looks like a dead end, because it is supposed to." She turned to look at Spring Lance. "Could you get the door, please?

Spring Lance bowed his head low.

"At once your majesty." He stepped up the cave wall.

"Private Spring Lance requesting reentry in XCOM Headquarters."

A voiced echoed from the cave wall.

"Password"

"We are the few, who will protect the many. We are the strong, who must defend the weak. We are the light, who will drive away the darkness. We are the soldiers of XCOM.

"Password accepted. Welcome home."

The cave began to rumble as the sound of screeching gears exploded out from the cave wall. I watched in complete awe as the wall that had halted our progress split perfectly down the center, and the two halves parted. Reveling a large, well lit hallway, a line of ponies, griffons and zebras all dressed in the same armor as the Lance brothers stood still like statues. Groups of all three species were dotted along the walls of the hallway welding bits of medal together and hooking cables into boxes that gave off an eerie glow. Any sarcastic comments I had on the situation died in my throat.

Our party advanced through the doorway, the stale gray color of the walls was bathed in a light that wasn't quite sunlight, but also wasn't the light that faded from Princess Celestia's horn. All of the guards together as if they were one being snapped their right front forelimb up to the side of their heads.

"Welcome home Princess." Their voices were in perfect unison.

The princess did not meet any of the guard's eyes as she continued down the hallway. Autumn Lance leaned in to whisper something in my ear.

"Come on Quick Sleet, I'll show you where the engineers make the combat suits."

I followed closely to Autumn Lance's side, trying to avoid eye contact with the line of guards. Their faces were stern and unflinching. I looked back just in time to see the massive gears that had opened the stone door, and watch them close it again with a thunderous crash.


End file.
